Antiquarian Map of Ireland c.1776

A fine original hand coloured map of Ireland by Bernard Scale from Hibernian atlas; 1776. On reverse discription of the map (see 2nd photograph). Surveyor and cartographer. Peter Bernard Scalé, who was born in 1738, was a son of Peter Scalé, a Huguenot resident in England. He was a pupil of JOHN ROCQUE , and, according to Strickland, came to Dublin to assist Rocque in the surveys for his map of Dublin. If this is correct he would have come to Ireland in or soon after 1754, when he was about sixteen. By the autumn of 1758 he had married Rocque's sister and was advertising on his own behalf, informing the public 'That he surveys Counties, Cities, Gentlemen's Estates, &c. topographically, after the Manner of Mr. John Rocque his Brother-in-Law, by whom he was instructed'. After Rocque left Dublin in 1760, Scalé stayed on and established his own successful suveying practice. He exhibited twice at the Society of Artists in Ireland, showing 'Drawings of Surveys' in 1766, and drawings of the demesnes of the Earl of Clanbrassil and of the Duke of Leinster in 1770. His pupils included James Asser, JOHN BROWNRIGG , WILLIAM RICHARDS and THOMAS SHERRARD . He formed partnerships with the latter three of these pupils at various periods. He appears in Wilson's Dublin Directory in partnership with Richards from 1763 to 1767, on his own from 1768 to 1773, in partnership with Sherrard and Brownrigg from 1774 to 1776, with Brownrigg alone in 1777, and on his own again from 1778 to 1779. The register of St Thomas's parish, Dublin, records the baptisms of six children of Bernard and Henrietta Scalé between 1769 and 1773 and the deaths of four of them during the same period. Among his numerous published maps is this one from the Hibernian atlas, or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland: 4to,London, 1776. Contains 37 maps. From 1774 onwards Scalé appears to have been based in England. An advertisement placed in Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 24-29 September 1774, announced that 'instructions from persons residing in England or Foreign parts, will be received by Mr Scalé, at Mangrove near Burnwood [Brentwood], Essex; Domestic Commands as usual by Mssrs Brownrigg and Sherrard at their house, Lower Abbey-Street'. SAMUEL BYRON appears to have served his apprenticeship with Scalé at Mangrove before coming to Ireland in 1779 to take up residence 'in the house (no 123 Lower Abbey-street) where Mr Scalé formerly lived'.(5) After 1779 Scale''s name disappears from the Dublin directories. For the rest of his long life he lived at various addresses in Essex. He died at North Hill, Colchester, in 1826. Scalé's Irish output was very large. In addition to numerous estate, town, district and county maps, he charted the coast from Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, to Wicklow Head in 1765 (with William Richards)(6) and produced a new edition of Rocque's map of Dublin in 1773. In 1767 he published a handsome set of engravings of the Parliament House in Dublin from drawings by ROWLAND OMER.